This thing is great. Very cool and slightly crunchier version of standard Fate. Look forward to GM book.

The first out of three books to complete the rules and setting for "the Chronicles of Future Earth." I question the wisdom in only releasing one of three needed books, as the ‘player’s guide’ isn’t a complete RPG by itself.

The ‘players guide’ is a great and beautiful tomb of a book and it allows you to create player characters, but only provides the bare minimum for the GM to run adventures, and that extends to both setting and rules.

The section on combat and mundane skills and their use in the game provides enough detail, but there is little to nothing on protagonists or antagonists. The section on magic is surprisingly good and really elevates the fantasy part, but yet with many of its sections left barebones with references to the two other books. These issues are hopefully addressed and covered in the two next coming books, but at the time of this review the rules and setting are incomplete.

The ‘quick start’ version with the included adventure Swallower of Souls provides some remedy by including some enemy profiles and more on the setting, but provides more of a snack sized sampler, than a fix.

I cross my fingers that the next two books will be released shortly, and that they indeed will cover the holes left by the first book.

Although, regrettably, incomplete at the moment this title has the potential to be one of the most interesting RPG titles in some time.

After the excellent The Lair of the Leopard Empresses (a direct best-of in the sword & sorcery genre), Sarah Newton brings us the second edition of her major work begun in the early 2000s. This first volume, dedicated to introducing the system and character creation, offers an immediately exciting and inspiring glimpse into the universe. At the crossroads of strong literary influences (G.Wolf, J.Vance, M. Moorcock), the game context recalls Numenera (itself inspired by the first edition of the chronicles) but explodes the limits of the imaginary. These chronicles have as much potential as Glorantha, in my opinion. I'd also like to add that the FATE-based rules system is remarkably well-written and the layout is very attractive. For me, one of the best, if not the best, role-playing games of the new year. I look forward to seeing the other two volumes.

I've been waiting for the full-blown version of this setting since the slim BRP version published by Chaosium in 2010 ... this is now officially my favourite science fantasy setting. It's a deep, lore-rich setting with dozens of human, human-related and wholly alien ancestries (my favourite of them being crab-like creatures and something that looks a little bit like a land jellyfish), with in-depth descriptions of cults and societies and cultures, with a cosmology of deities and demons (both probably more some kind of extradimensional entites) ... and with a millenia-old empire that's encrusted in its rigid traditions and seems unable to change it ways, even when threatened with extinction - so there's dire need for adventurous souls with a propensity for lateral thinking.

The setting is both similar in its core assumption to Numenera's Ninth World and even to Troika! (and I love the latter), but also totally different in tis approach -as I said, this one is a deep setting, nothing is handwaved away as just some millenia-old mystery that can't be explained. Future Earth breathes its future history. Like Numenera and Troika!, it is also a setting that feels colorful, and the art is suffused by a sense of hope and adventure. There's dark stuff in here, for sure, but it never feels dominant.

The system in this iteration is "Cosmic Fate", which is basically a crunchy version of Fate Core with d6-d6 for added swinginess, a cap on bonuses from aspects and crits and fumbles. It leans heavily into the "Fate fractal" where everything from a contact to a demonic weapon to a mount can become it's own little entity with aspects. It looks like it needs some investment, it's definitely not a variant of fate I'd fly by the seat of my pants, but I like both the increased swinginess and the cap on aspect spamming.

It needs to be said that this seems to have pretty much all the rules, but there's still a GM book and a setting book coming. For now, this is just a great read for me, but I really hope I'll be able to get a campaign going as soon as all three volumes are out.

Short take: The Worm Within is a very enjoyable read. I recommend it and look forward to the next installment. Long take: I won't describe the plot in details, but it's pretty standard stuff for anyone who's read a smidgen of pulp fantasy and/or sat on fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing game sessions. There's a young apprentice with a mysterious past, a paladin, a magician of sorts, a thief, and a dark threat that puts the whole world in danger. Still, Sarah Newton manages to inject enough energy in these over-used formulas to keep The Worm Within interesting. The short chapters, organized around brief sections showcasing Newton's resolute writing style, give the story a strong forward momentum almost from the get-go. There's little to no fat either: the novel's very well edited, with less than a handful of typos. Jargon pertaining to the world in which the story takes place fills the text, but I never found it so distracting that I stopped enjoying the read. In fact, as the story progressed, said jargon drew me in further. The Worm Within contains memorable, well-drawn characters. Although the novel's plot-driven, the people we get to spend time with never feel like after-thoughts. It is in fact our concern for their fate that makes The Worm Within such a fun read. As the novel reaches its climax, so too do the emotionally-charged threads tying all the characters together. The result is a very satisfying climax, one that's emotional as well as awesome in scale. Finally, there's the world, which is one of the novel's main strengths: it's vast and resplendent, full of far-out deep history where super-advanced technology functions alongside awe-inspiring sorcery. Anyone interested in the world of Chronicles of Future Earth would do well to read this novel as it stands as its best introduction, one that is filled with magic, high-tech, weird creatures, strange customs, evil fiends, and long lost ruins full of wonders and dangers. Just pure, unadulterated, pulpy fun. Note: The Worm Within is also the name of the good adventure that appears in Chaosium's 2011 Chronicles of Future Earth supplement. The novel and the adventure have very little in common though, beyond their common title and one of their plot-points. So, dive in.